


Keeping You Safe

by ownedbyacat



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe, Army!fic, JaeMin, M/M, MinJae, Soulfighters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-07-29 17:29:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7693195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ownedbyacat/pseuds/ownedbyacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Nowhere is Safe. After unmasking a top-level sleeper agent in the army's intelligence division, Major Shim Changmin would love nothing better than to settle into his new posting as intelligence officer for the solo squad and explore his brand new relationship with sniper ace Major Kim Jaejoong. But spy stuff is messy and when the mole is sprung from high-security jail the day before his scheduled execution, Changmin knows that this affair is far from over. Hoping to unravel the rest of the conspiracy, and to determine the mole's real target, Changmin offers himself as bait, leaving his lover to pull in favours and even make a deal with a man he despises just to keep Changmin safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Under Threat

# Under Threat

"That's him," Hyeon said, voice harsh with fury and exertion.

The concrete roof slabs were rough and cold under his feet. The wind, chill and sharp ten floors up, bit through the threadbare prison garb. The man beside him held out a dark trench-coat and Hyeon pulled it on, more to hide the garish and widely visible orange of his prison-issue jumpsuit than for warmth. The chill meant little when his breath raced from the short flight across the square and the sprint up to the roof. When his heart beat so hard his vision blurred. Barely healed ribs protested vigorous movement, as did the fresh scar tissue on this back and thighs.

But pain Hyeon could deal with.  He'd been trained for it, had been prepared. Just as he'd been prepared to step out of his cell, walk down the corridor and down a few stairs to face a firing squad.

He hadn't been prepared to be sprung from his prison mere hours before his execution, to fight his way through the panicked guards and inmates of the high-security wing, or run down the street and up to the nearest roof. He hadn't been prepared for a prison break. He hadn't expected anything of the sort, and yet… the moment the explosion had shaken the building and the outside wall of the prison had disappeared he had been on the move.

He shouldn't be on the roof. Shouldn't be anywhere near the place where he'd been held. Common sense and prudence should have dictated that he follow the men who had come to his rescue to the nearest getaway vehicle. That he disappear in a cloud of dust and stay gone for all time.

It wasn't how he was wired.

His body might be in bad shape after ten months of imprisonment and interrogation, but the time spent incarcerated hadn't cooled his anger. Nor the need for vengeance. From his position on the roof, the former head of ROKA Intelligence had an excellent view. And he didn't have long to wait.

He pointed towards the centre of the devastation, where a tall, uniformed man observed the chaos. The man stood at parade rest, hands linked behind his back, and turned his head this way and that, cataloguing, indexing, remembering every detail. "I knew it! Damn him, I knew it! That's Shim. And the devious son of a bitch is top of the shit list. I want him. Before I go, I want him. Or I want him to go down screaming. Do you hear me?"

The men surrounding him shivered at the menace in that voice. But none of them thought to baulk at the command. "Yes, sir. Understood."

 

xxX oOo Xxx

 

It was a fuck up the size and style of which Major Shim Changmin from ROKA Intelligence had never encountered before. Whole orders of magnitude bigger, in fact, he thought as he carefully picked his way through the debris. Glass crunched underfoot and he stepped over and around torn steel beams and broken concrete slabs.

Three walls of the military prison's high-security wing were still standing. The fourth wall lay spread in a shattered jumble across the parade ground. A row of ambulances was queued up on the far side of the large space. Paramedics loaded stretchers into each one, before it took off towards the base's gate and made room for the one behind it. The stream of vehicles seemed as endless as the stream of stretchers being borne from the shattered shell of the prison complex and it didn't need the bevvy of guards to remind Changmin that every single one of the injured men was considered dangerous. Some—and it was fairly easy to spot those, on account of the troops of heavily armed men surrounding each—were considered desperate enough to try to escape.

There was little chance of any of the high-security prisoners making a break for it. Not now, when the prison wing had been reduced to so much rubble in an attack that had been planned and executed with utter ruthlessness. And, judging by the continuing stream of stretchers and ambulances, with total disregard for anyone's life but that of the man they had sought.

Whom they had found in the nick of time.

The fact that he'd known this would happen was no balm to his conscience. Being right wasn't a balm for anything when faced with rubble, gore and lines of stretchers.

He was almost grateful when his phone interrupted his musings and he read the order to report to HQ on the double. Without another look at the shattered shell that had been unable to hold his erstwhile commander, Major Shim turned and left the site.


	2. Return to Base

"Major Shim reporting as ordered, sir." Changmin stood rigid, back straight and chin up. He kept his mouth shut and eyes trained on the gold braid on the general's left shoulder to avoid catching the man's eye. The general looked like a thundercloud already. It would be foolish to rile him further. Even if he deserved it and Changmin wanted to yell at him for being a conservative stick-in-the-mud. That just wasn't done.

"Tell me what you found."

No longer the razor-in-gravel Changmin was used to hearing, the general's voice was a muted rumble now, like an earthquake held in check by pure will. It was a warning Changmin was too smart not to heed.

"Damage to the site is comprehensive, sir," he reported. "Sixteen dead at last count. About forty injured. Both counts still rising."

"Is anyone else unaccounted for?"

"No, sir."

"Sit the fuck down, Shim. You don't need to say it."

Changmin wasn't going to. The increasing tally of dead and injured said _I told you so_ far louder than he ever could. Changmin had predicted months ago that Hyeon's team would make an attempt to free him. None of the analysts who advised the Joint Chiefs had agreed with him and Changmin's warnings and suggestions had been ignored. Only for Hyeon to be snatched out of a high-security facility hours before his execution.

"Tell me how you knew they would spring him. How did you know what would happen when I had a whole bunch of analysts tell me nothing of the sort?"

"I've spent over three years studying their actions, sir. The extent of the compromised missions and the number of tiny leaks suggested that General Hyeon was settled in for the long haul. And that he wasn't working alone. I couldn't imagine that his handlers would end his deployment without achieving his objective."

"Which is?"

"I don't know."

"You believe he has an overriding objective beyond passing secrets to the North on a daily basis. You don't know what his objective is, but you believe he didn't achieve it at the time of his arrest. Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you based your prediction that they would spring him… _on that_?"

The general's voice rose in sheer disbelief. Changmin was careful not to shrug. Hunches were difficult to explain to someone like the general, who ran purely on facts. Changmin did too. It was merely the way he lined up those facts and connected them that made him different. Most senior members of the military and intelligence community worked off preconceived ideas. They had black-and-white outlines that guided their day to day activities and that they used as framework for any data they were offered.

Changmin didn't.

He tried to keep an open mind. He arranged and re-arranged facts until the pattern was… pleasing. The only one who'd ever understood that explanation was Jaejoong. While everybody else looked at him as if he was crazy, Jae had nodded as if Changmin hadn't said anything out of the ordinary. "I get it," he'd said. "It's the feeling I get when I know I have a shot. It isn't in your head, but that doesn't mean it's wrong."

Explaining that to the general would be an exercise in futility. So Changmin took a leaf from Jaejoong's book. The sniper was far more diplomatic than he'd ever be. "I've been extrapolating from existing data, sir," he said carefully. "I've spent three years immersed in this investigation. I lived through the events I was analysing, so my innate knowledge is different from that of other intelligence analysts."

"Bullshit," the general said succinctly. "Don't ever apologise for doing your job, Major. Not to me. You told me what would happen. I was the one who didn't listen. Not the way you needed to be listened to. Do you have any insights as to what he'll do next?"

It was an afternoon for surprises. Changmin took a breath and let it out. "In the short term, he'll disappear. Going by the few reports I've seen, he wasn't in good shape after the interrogations. He'll want to remedy that. Those of his team on the inside, either in the military or in intelligence, will need to lie low for a while too. Medium term, he will want to neutralise anyone he considers a threat. His long-term goal will be to complete his main objective. All of that supposes, of course, that the North Koreans won't recall him immediately. They will if they believe he's compromised."

"Have you seen the tapes from his interrogations?"

"No, sir."

"He didn't break. It's been suggested that he's been trained to a high level to withstand torture. Would that stop the North Koreans from recalling him?"

"I don't know, sir. It depends where they consider him more useful. He has lots of information on the inner workings of the military and the intelligence community. Whether that's more valuable to them than the objective they sent him to achieve… Do we know how long he's been working for them?"

"Since his wife's kidnapping and death. That's what he admitted to. Listen… I want you in charge of hunting down Hyeon and every single one of his team."

"Yes, sir."

"Spit it out, Shim. I already said I'm listening. If I'd put you in charge ten months ago we might—"

"—not know any more than we do now. His team would have been playing dead while they planned to break him out. There was a purge in army intelligence following his arrest and an internal investigation. Everyone was scrambling for cover. There would have been little opportunity to identify any other sleepers."

"Shim. I hate to repeat myself."

"Yes, sir. I think we should establish what his objective is before we hunt down his team. If we understand what task he's been sent to accomplish, it will be easier to work out how big his network is."

"Fine. I want a daily report until I, personally, tell you otherwise. You will not accept anybody else's orders on any aspect of this case. You have my authority to request personnel and resources as you see fit. Is that understood?"

The general's shoulder's slumped. He looked bone tired and Changmin imagined he wasn't looking forward to briefing the joint chiefs on their failure. That he wasn't coming down like a ton of bricks on the intelligence group was telling. Still, being offered that level of authority was heady stuff. He might… conceivably…

Changmin stood and saluted. "Understood, sir."

xxX oOo Xxx

"Sign here."

Jaejoong fought not to grimace. This was the fourth time he'd been asked for his signature, fingerprints and retina scan. And they weren't even at the front gate yet! Getting a traitor out of jail was much less fun than he'd anticipated. Especially since he'd rather throw away the key and the traitor in question didn't in the least appreciate the favour Jaejoong was doing him.

Jaejoong signed. "How many more times do we have to do this?" he asked as he was patted down and another guard checked the cuffs that bound Ran Joon's wrists and ankles before allowing them through the door.

"Twice more. Prisoners don't usually cross through sections other than the ones they're assigned to. You don't realise how much of an exception this is."

"Oh, I realise it just fine," Jaejoong mumbled as he turned and made his way down the long sterile corridor to the next set of doors, guards and another retina scan.

"When are you going to tell me what trouble Changmin is in?" Cuffed as he was, Ran Joon struggled to keep step with Jaejoong.

"I already told you. There's nothing else you need to know."

"Bullshit. You've told me nothing."

Jaejoong shrugged. "Maybe I'm just the messenger boy."

They passed through the last two checkpoints in silence. Jaejoong didn't want to discuss the situation anywhere they could be overheard, and maybe Ran got that. Or maybe he was sulking. Jae really didn't care. He kept wondering why the colonel had sent him to retrieve Ran, when the man knew better than anyone how much he and Ran disliked each other. Did that mean he expected them to work together? The thought made his stomach heave. Ran did that to him. Ran and the memory of standing up in front of his whole troop to expose Ran's blackmail scheme. It had been one of the scariest things he'd ever done. And while he'd thought he was years past the memories, he'd obviously been fooling himself.

Picturing Changmin helped calm him and made him want to return to base as quickly as he could. Colonel Seong had mentioned the casualty count for the attack and Min would no doubt feel guilty. Never mind that he'd predicted the attack. Never mind that he'd risked ridicule to warn the general. The nineteen lives lost while he investigates Hyeon still weighed on his mind. Jaejoong knew that he would add the men who'd died that morning to the tally.

xxX oOo Xxx

The last time Ran Joon had seen the base, it had been through a sniper's scope from the top of an apartment building. The place looked little different from the ground. The office block he'd damaged had been rebuilt, the cafeteria had new glass, most likely bulletproof by the way it distorted the light just a bit. Men went about their business as they had always done.

When they didn't stop what they were doing to stare at him, that was.

Ran kept his head down. He tuned out the attention as he'd learned to do while in prison and followed Jaejoong into the building and up the stairs. Outside their old common room, Jaejoong stopped.

"I need to see the colonel. You will wait here. If—"

"—you set one foot outside the place blah blah blah," Ran mocked. "Spare me the lecture. I have a good memory."

Jaejoong shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Ran Joon hadn't expected a welcoming committee. But all told, he'd not expected to be faced with a lynch mob either.

"What the fuck is he doing here?"

"Did he forget to fuck someone else over before we threw him out?"

"He clearly wants an asskicking. Shall we get to it, boys?"

It wasn't an idle threat. Ran Joon settled in a wide stance. He lowered his gaze the better to observe from his peripheral vision. Getting into a brawl wouldn't improve his situation. In fact, it might land him right back in jail. Or get him shot. But he was damned either way and he wouldn't let anyone turn him into their bitch.

"Stop that shit right now."

Saved by Jaejoong. How annoying.

The sniper blazed into the room and stepped right into the middle of the crowd. "Have you forgotten how we treat guests?"

"If they go by Ran Joon we kick their asses," Rin got in his face. "I would've thought you'd be first in line for the honour. How the fuck did he get here, anyway?"

"I got him out of jail," Jae said and he sounded tired. "Have you heard the news?"

"Yeah. Min was right and the goons at HQ can eat their words."

"Use your brain, Rin. Hyeon is out, so Changmin's a target. The target, since he's the one who smoked Hyeon out. As of now, we're Min's guard detail. One hair off his head or one wrinkle in his shirt and it's our asses on the line. Besides that, Min's got enough crap on his plate being related to that."

Ran almost laughed at the throwaway gesture. Jaejoong was a son of a gun. Manipulating a roomful of angry men for the sheer hell of it. Or was he? It bugged him that he still didn't know how much danger Changmin was in. That he had no idea what Jaejoong wanted with him. He'd never dealt well with uncertainty and Jae's piecemeal delivery drove him nuts.

Still, for the moment he held his peace, lest he spark World War III and when Jae tilted his head in what was unquestionably an order, he turned and followed the man from the room.


	3. Steps out of Sync

Ran Joon hadn't expected Jaejoong to lead him to the barracks section of the base. Neither had he expected the man to stop off at the quartermaster's office on the way to get him a set of fresh clothes. Not having to run around in his prison gear was a kindness. And since when did the sniper ace get off on kindness?

Fortunately for Ran Joon's peace of mind, Jaejoong's charitable impulses didn't last long. The room he took Ran to had two guards stationed outside its door. And Jaejoong didn't mince words as he introduced him.

"See this guy? This is the asshole who shot up the base ten months ago. He so much as sets a toe outside this room without Colonel Seong or myself beside him, you shoot to kill. Don't even bother asking questions first. Understand?"

Their flat glares made it clear that they more than understood. Ran wouldn't have put it past Jae to select guards who'd known Jong Ki and the other men he'd killed. Just to make his life difficult. And no, he wouldn't be going out that way any time soon. Yet Ran Joon had to keep pushing.

"Always with the drama," he baited as soon as they were inside. "You could have just asked me to give you my word."

Jaejoong looked him up and down in a slow, measured way that made Ran's blood boil and his fists itch. "Your word. Right."

Jae spun and made a quick, efficient survey of the room. He even checked the small bathroom. For what? Allies? Aliens? Ran had no idea. Place didn't even have a window and unless he learned to walk through walls he was more or less stuck. Ah well, it wasn't as if he'd not spent the last ten months in a cell. Same thing, just more comfortable. And with a TV.

"Get one thing straight," Jae said when he stood in front of Ran again. "None of this," he indicated the small room with its sofa, TV and soft bed, "is for you. You would be rotting in your cell if we didn't need your help to keep Changmin safe. I got you out of jail for him. I'm prepared to make you comfortable because it might upset him if I don't. But the moment you step one toe out of line, or the moment he tells me he doesn't give a wet fart for you, you'll find yourself in your civvies chained in the basement. And if you turn away from the straight and narrow by so much as an inch, I'll kill you myself. I give you my word on that. And my word is good."

"You're still not scary, Kim. You never were."

"And you're full of shit. Just as you've always been."

xxX oOo Xxx

His time with Ran Joon had left a bad taste in Jaejoong's mouth. But it vanished the moment he let himself into his quarters and found Changmin there.

Changmin lay face down across their bed. He was in running shorts and his back gleamed with sweat, suggesting he'd either done laps around the parade ground or had been lifting weights until he was exhausted. None of the activity had relaxed him, though. Jae could see the muscles bunching in Changmin's shoulders, the tight line of his jaw and neck. Over the last two weeks, Changmin's stress levels had gone through the roof. Even when he presented a blank facade to the world, deep inside he fretted himself to ribbons. He'd never believed that Hyeon was simply passing on day-to-day intelligence to the North Koreans. He was convinced the man had a prime objective. One that he hadn't yet completed.

Jaejoong could see the logic in Changmin's argument. The senior analysts at ROKA HQ hadn't been able to. They hadn't laughed aloud when Changmin voiced his theory and warned that Hyeon's team would mount a rescue. They were far too convinced of their own importance for that. But Jae knew they'd come to close to patting Changmin on the head and telling him to run away and play.

Changmin hadn't minded the condescension. Much. But he'd confided to Jaejoong one night that being unable to puzzle out the man's objective scared him stupid. "We don't know what they're after," he'd whispered the words into the darkness. "So we have no idea how far they're willing to go. What if… what if it's something so important to them that they'll start a war?"

Jae hadn't been able to say anything to make Changmin feel better. There just wasn't anything to say. The only thing he could—and did—do was pull the younger man closer and make him forget his troubles for a while. Over the last two weeks he hadn't even been able to do that. Changmin had barely slept, even after he'd exhausted himself running. He spent countless hours poring over intelligence reports, looking for activity, chatter… anything that might tell him what would happen next.

What had happened next was exactly what Min had predicted. And by all accounts, the brass was in a right snit about it. Changmin had been ordered to report immediately. Colonel Seong had been called into a meeting with the general. Jae had been dispatched to bring Ran Joon.

And Changmin lay across the bed, chest heaving and back gleaming with sweat, still tense as a strung bow.

Well…. at least Jaejoong knew what to do about that.

He stepped up to the bed and shoved both hands into Changmin's running shorts, clasping his firm ass. "You're making a mess of the bed, Min. Come shower."

"I'm too—"

"I know what you are. Shower. Now!"

Changmin rolled onto his back, groaning a little when the movement dislodged Jae's questing fingers. "Wash my back?"

"Nope." Jae pulled him upright. "But I might be persuaded to give you a spit shine." Min's gasp at the suggestion was a beautiful sound and Jaejoong promptly made good on his offer.

Changmin didn't last long and Jae hadn't expected him to. They'd barely touched each other in the last two weeks and Changmin, who had a libido like a horny teenager on speed, had to be starving for a few good orgasms. Something Jae intended to take care of that evening. To their mutual satisfaction.

He dragged the younger man out of the shower and into the kitchen, plying him with food and beer and nothing more taxing than a few stupid jokes until Changmin started to relax just a bit.

"You trying to get me drunk?" he asked, waving his second bottle of beer.

"Just enough to get that stick out of your ass." Jaejoong held up the jar of chili paste and grinned when Changmin's eyes widened in recognition. "I had to get reacquainted with my right hand these last couple of weeks and now… Min-ah… now I have plans."

Changmin flushed. "I'm sorry. I know I've—"

"Shut up." Jaejoong demonstrated how he meant that by straddling Changmin's lap and inspecting his tonsils. "I wasn't fishing for apologies. Just… trying to remind you that being tense and horny can play havoc with your reasoning skills. And you'll need those, so let me help." He dropped a hand to the package in Changmin's lap and squeezed until Changmin dropped his head back and moaned. "Come on, Min-ah. Bedroom. I've not heard you scream my name in far too long."

That sounded cheesy, but Changmin was too far gone for even a snarky comment. He got up without argument and even shed his t-shirt on the way to the bed.

Jaejoong took care of Changmin's sweats through the simple expedient of treading on his hems until the fabric lost contact with Changmin's hips and gravity took its toll. All the man had to do after that, was step out of the tangled pile.

"On your back," Jaejoong ordered, already salivating over the view he'd have in just a moment. "Hands over your head. Knees up."

Predictably, Changmin flushed a deep crimson. He loved sex. He had gotten used to being fucked. Had started to ask for it, even, but he didn't like being put on his back and on display like this. Which was exactly why Jaejoong did it, of course. Changmin had yet to learn to use sex to let go. He'd had a taste of it in the cave, and had enjoyed it, but Jae hadn't really pushed it since. Tonight…maybe tonight was a good time to remind him.

Jaejoong ignored Changmin while he stripped. He fished lube and a blindfold from the bedside drawer and when he turned around, Changmin was spread out for him. And what a sight it was.

"Fuck, you're gorgeous," he whispered and crawled onto the bed. He wanted that mouth, wanted to touch all that skin, but… first things first. He dangled the blindfold over Changmin's face. "I'll miss seeing your eyes go blind with pleasure, but you need to stop thinking. So…" He ignored the shudder that shook Changmin from head to toe and set the blindfold in place. "Keep your hands on the bars," he instructed, ghosting his lips over Changmin's face. "And your knees up. I want all of you tonight. Every fucking inch. And I'll give you all of mine."

Changmin whimpered and Jaejoong kissed him into oblivion. It was the only way he could do this. If Changmin looked at him with those gorgeous eyes, or got his hands on Jae's skin, Jaejoong would lose it. And he needed to take care of Changmin first.

He did it slowly, kissing his way down Changmin's neck to the hollow of his throat, tasting each nipple in turn and running the tip of his tongue over Changmin's ribs and abs. His lover was thrashing, swearing, babbling… and Jae kept going until he was sure there wasn't a coherent thought left in Changmin's head. Changmin's prick wept and begged for attention and Jaejoong's mouth watered at the sight.

Knowing how close he was, and how far Changmin still had to go, he denied them both, instead raking his teeth over Changmin's hip bones until Changmin arched nearly off the bed. They rarely left marks on each other, but right then Changmin probably needed the reminder. Jae's teeth sank into the soft skin of Changmin's inner thigh, just as his fingers found the little nub inside him. And then Changmin's voice was the only thing Jae heard.

Time blurred after that. One finger became two and then three. Changmin thrashed and swore, but he didn't let go of the bars and he didn't try to get rid of the blindfold as he so easily could have done. Instead he gave himself over to Jae's ministrations until there was nothing left but need. When Jaejoong pulled Changmin's ass into his lap and buried himself inside the younger man's body, he was so close to the edge himself that all he wanted was Changmin's hands on him.

Jae had determined that Changmin needed to lose himself in pleasure to regain his equilibrium. He'd not considered his own needs. Had not realised how afraid he truly was. And that he needed the reassurance of knowing that Changmin was right here with him. Stretched out over his lover, flushed and sweating and buried to the hilt in Changmin's ass… Jaejoong suddenly understood that he'd fallen in love.

It made no sense at all and yet, it explained so much.

"Touch me, Min-ah," he whispered desperately. "Touch me."

He didn't know how, but even in the throes of passion Changmin heard him. He didn't bother removing the blindfold, but he wound his long legs around Jaejoong's waist and wrapped him up in his arms. With nary a thought between them they kissed and rocked against each other, hard and desperate and perfect until the air around them exploded into stars.

xxX oOo Xxx

"He's put me in charge," Changmin said when they'd showered and were settled under the blankets. The darkness made confessions easier. "The general. He put me in charge of cleaning up this mess. I have almost card blanche."

"What's almost?"

"The general wants a daily report. Other than that, I can do what I want. I'm not sure… I'm not sure whether I should be grateful for the chance or scared to death. It's so damned easy to fuck this up."

"We've already seen that. Which is why I'm sure you won't go down that route," Jaejoong soothed. "Our casualty list would be much shorter if they'd listened to you. Learn from it. Keep an open mind. And we're here to have your back."

"What if I don't want you to?"

Changmin's sleepy mumble was endearing, the words half slurred, his thoughts out of focus. He buried his face in Jaejoong's shoulder and his breathing soon settled into sleep. Jaejoong wasn't so lucky. Still reeling from his revelation, he had the eerie feeling that he'd just stepped off a cliff. He was falling into an abyss, not knowing whether the ground he hurtled towards was lined with soft bedding or jagged rocks. And it was far too late to do anything to stop it.


	4. First Blood

Waking beside a relaxed, sleep-tousled Changmin had its benefits. The kind that Jaejoong had sorely missed over the preceding two weeks, when Changmin had barely slept in their bed. When he'd been hanging out in the communications room all night to listen to chatter and had worked like crazy all day to make sense of what they'd caught on their nightly trawls. 

Jaejoong would have dared anyone to turn down the slide of sleep-warm skin against skin, the barely there gasps and open-mouthed kisses, and the dark eyes growing darker with desire and then soft with satiation.

Yes, waking beside a relaxed, sleep-tousled Chagmin made for a most satisfying start to the morning.

It also left Jaejoong buzzing with purpose and just a tiny hint of trepidation. He left Changmin in their quarters, getting ready for the day, knowing that he still hadn't told the man about the order he'd been given the previous day. He didn't relish the moment Changmin found out that Jaejoong had been sent to spring Ran Joon from prison. He was quite convinced that Changmin wouldn't be pleased.

Moreover, since he was now in charge of the investigation, Changmin could conceivably send Ran Joon right back to rot in his cell. Jaejoong would have applauded that sentiment if he didn't believe that Ran Joon would gladly help protect Changmin, however much he whined and complained and postured. And if he weren't so keen himself to make sure Changmin survived this mess.

The guards outside Ran Joon's room saluted as he approached.

"Not a peep out of him, Major," the senior of the pair reported. "I looked in on him at midnight and he was asleep."

Jae nodded his thanks, though he didn't believe that for the moment. Not that the guard hadn't checked. He no doubt had looked in on Ran Joon at midnight just as he'd claimed. And seen Ran Joon sleep. It was Ran Joon's response that Jaejoong couldn't credit. It had only been four years since Ran Joon had left the solo squad. He couldn't have gotten so sloppy that he'd sleep through someone stepping into his room. On the other hand, ten months in prison might change a man. Not that Jaejoong would know, but he was prepared to give Ran the benefit of the doubt. 

Once.

He found Ran Joon standing by the window, tea cup in hand. He looked older in the harsh light of early morning, worn and almost threadbare. Not like the loud, uncouth lout he was, nor like the jovial, cheerful creature he had pretended to be. And, conceivably, not the caring, supportive, protective older brother Changmin remembered, either. So many faces on one man, and Jaejoong was ready to concede that he had no idea which of those was the real one.

"You ready for a day's work?" he asked from the doorway.

"You ready to tell me why you dragged me out of jail?" came the morose reply.

For once, Jae didn't feel riled. "I told you. I need your help in keeping Changmin safe. We can't keep him out of the line of fire. He won't allow it. So I want to know who might be pulling the triggers, so we can take them out before they close in on Changmin."

"You really think I'd snitch?"

"Would you rather want me to think that you sell out your brother? Because if you do, you're too late. The last time around you appreared desperate to save Min. I cannot imagine you risked your neck and landed yourself in jail on a whim."

Some of the fight went out of Ran Joon at Jaejoong's challenge. "You're right, I didn't." He sounded almost resigned. "Do you have somewhere for me to work, or am I confined to this room?"

"We have workspaces in the common room," Jae told him. "I assume you need a computer? We can grab breakfast on the way."

 

***

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Changmin had come into the solo squad's common room in search of more caffeine. He had almost walked past the man who sat with his face close to a computer screen. But something in the way he held himself, the way he tilted his head, had stopped Changmin in his tracks. With the second glance came recognition. And fury. "How did you get here?"

"Ask Kim. He's the one who dragged me from my cosy, government-owned retirement home."

"To do what exactly?"

Ran Joon had never looked at him the way he did then. His gaze conveyed half contempt half pity. And, of course, his mouth was twisted into that sneer he had adopted after he'd been thrown out of the solo squad. Changmin hated the expression. And Ran's next words only made bad worse.

"As far as I can make out, little brother, to watch your stupid ass. Since you can't be trusted to do it yourself."

"Stirring the shit again I see." Rin stood in the doorway, glaring at Ran Joon. "I thought if there was one man you'd not screw over it'd be your brother."

"My brother. You mean the man I never once heard from in the last ten months?"

"And whose fucking fault is that I wonder?" Rin's disgust wasn't even thinly disguised now and Changmin found it strange that Rin took arms in his defense, without Changmin having even asked him. "You fucked up, but it is your brother's fault? Now where have I heard that song before, eh?"

"You know nothing. You've never been dumped abroad with no way to make a living and—"

"Trust you to find a way to twist the truth into a fucking pretzel. Spare me the sob story. Jae didn't get you out of jail so you can whine about how hard you've been done by." 

Changmin had followed the increasingly heated exchange in silence. Now he raised an eyebrow. "Jaejoong got him out of jail?"

"Under orders. Probably under protest, too. Unfortunately, he's too much of a professional to duct tape Ran's mouth shut. I'd have made that a condition of him being let out of his cell."

"Yes, but why—"

"Major Shim," Rin began—and it was never a good thing when Rin's language turned formal—"General Hyeon is somewhere out there. And he's after you. Don't tell me you don't feel the itch between your shoulder blades."

Changmin scrubbed both hands over his face, the deeply relaxed feeling of the morning now barely a memory. His neck was tight, his scalp prickled and he knew he'd be fighting a concorde-class headache before noon. With or without caffeine. Rin's caustic words weren't helping. Of course he knew he was a target. Since he'd been ordered to retrieve Hyeon and take down his network, how could it be otherwise? 

That didn't mean Jae and Rin or even Ran Joon had to get into the line of fire. Changmin had enough deaths on his conscience to want to add more. He knew he couldn't magically solve this case, wouldn't suddently establish General Hyeon's objective. He'd had four years of trying to figure this out. The simple fact that he hadn't, despite being immersed in the case, meant it was either something seriously out there or something so scary that his mind refused to even contemplate the idea.

"I do feel the itch, believe me," he told Rin quietly. "It's been my constant companion for the last four years. And let me thell you one other thing. There've been too many times that bullet, the one with my name on it, whizzed past me and hit someone else. At first, I thought it was merely due to the shooter being sloppy. That happens, you know? And the results are unpredictable. But lately… lately I'm thinking that the shooter is a sadist. He's not out to kill me. He's out to make me suffer. He's out to put me through as much agony as he can manage. And you know what? You're fucking handing him the ammunition!"

Changminn's quiet voice had risen with his agitation. He'd worried for a long time how to make his sentiments known, how to dissuade those dodging his coattails with the intent to protect him without coming across like an ungrateful sod. Only to find that his temper had overtaken his caution, that his strict control had slipped.

By the end of rant he was shouting.

Loudly.

His voice carried until the whole common room rang with it.

But it wasn't loud enough to muffle the boom of the explosion that rocked the base.

 

***

 

They were out of the common room and down the stairs in a handful of heartbeats. Men milled around, confusion in their faces. At first glance, nothing seemed out of place.

Until Changmin rounded the corner by the cafeteria and saw it.

The base's gatehouse was a pile of so much rubble. A thick cloud of dust hung over the scene of devastation and the air stank of gunpoweder and smoldering plastic.

Changmin was in the thick of the disaster scene before he knew it. Training took over and he took charge, sending men for stretchers, water, shovels and carriers. Rin assembled teams to put out the fire, and somewhere behind Changmin, Colonel Seong's voice was a beacon of calm amidst the frantic activity.

Clearing the site progressed at speed when the dust settled. Changmin knew that he'd be better able to assess the scene from a distance, but something held him close to the centre of the explosion. He cast about, desperately scanning the site for the source of his unease.

A boot caught his attention. A softer shape amongst sharp-edged broken concrete, torn metal and crumpled plastic. He yelled for help, started to heave blocks and metal struts out of the way to clear space around their unconscious comrade.

Other men moved up beside him to help. Blocks were passed back along an impromptu line with Changmin at the point until he had cleared enough space to be able to see.

What he saw froze his blood.

A motionless shape lay in the small area. A shape he would have known anywhere.

Jaejoong.


	5. Hurt and Hurting

"You didn't really believe that a little explosion would take him out, did you, Major? Let me tell you something: Jaejoong's head is a lot harder than that!" The doctor handed him a shot of soju, motioning for him to knock it back. Changmin obeyed. He relished the burn of the alcohol and breathed for the first time since he'd seen Jaejoong lying lifeless in the rubble.

"He wasn't hurt?"

"Let's not go as far as all that. It was quite a blast and he was unconscious when you found him. The X-ray tells us he's not broken anything, but he's been tossed around a bit. And he's had all that concrete land on top of him. He's bound to be bruised and sore and there's a chance he has a concussion."

"Does he have to stay here?" Changmin asked quietly. It would make doing what he needed to do much easier, but he wasn't sure he could just… leave… without seeing Jae one last time, when he was by no means certain that he would be alive when all of this was over.

"It's barely lunchtime. Why don't you come back at five and I'll see if I can release him to his quarters. Mind you, if he has a concussion, he'll need watching overnight. So you may—"

"No, I won't change my mind, Doctor. I'll be here at five sharp."

Changmin spun and left before the man, who was far too adept at reading people, spotted what Changmin didn't want known.

The attack had caused considerable damage and some injuries, but to Changmin's immense relief, nobody had been killed. He spent the day talking to people until his head felt ready to explode. When the gate guard, who'd been with Jaejoong when the explosion had occurred, had finally been released from medical and Changmin went to see him, his day went from bad to worse.

Ran Joon was sitting beside the man. And they both looked up when Changmin came in.

"How is the Major?" the guard asked anxiously, only relaxing when Changmin shrugged.

"Being watched for a concussion. Otherwise he's fine."

"Thank the gods. I was just telling—" he broke off, clearly unsure how to refer to Ran Joon, and finally settled on "—Ran Joon-ssi that it wasn't an attack. Not as such. I'd just taken in a delivery addressed to you when I saw Major Kim come in. I asked him whether he would take it with him or whether I should call you down. He said he'd take it, but then something caught his eye. I don't know what. He told me to get out and then he grabbed the thing and threw it down the corridor."

"And then it went off."

"Yes."

"I've been quizzing him about the man who brought the delivery," Ran Joon said as he followed Changmin back towards the solo squad's offices a little while later. "I think I have an idea who it was. If I could go after him I could—"

"Sure. I'm letting you leave the base to go after your former associate. Very smart. Wouldn't it be easier all round if you just shot me now? But no… that'd be far too easy an end to satisfy your boss, wouldn't it?"

Ran Joon stared at him from narrowed eyes. "If he's anyone's boss, he's yours. You used to work for him. And I never realised you had that low an opinion of me."

"I didn't either. Until I heard about the blackmail, and the extortion, and saw you commit treason I had no idea what kind of man you were."

"I'm the same man I've always been, Minnie-ah."

"Don't call me that." Changmin rubbed the space between his brows. The headache was starting to mess with his eyesight and he had to go and check on Jaejoong. "Okay, fine," he said, ignoring Ran Joon's offended look. "Maybe you have always been that way and I've simply been blind to what you really were. There. The fault's mine. Are you happy now?"

"I've not been happy in a long time."

"Yeah, well. Join the club."

xxX oOo Xxx

Jaejoong moved a little gingerly, but he didn't look as if he'd taken any serious damage. "I'm fine, Min. Don't fuss," he begged when Changmin hovered over him, even once he'd settled on the sofa in their quarters.

"I don't believe you," Changmin grumbled back. "You didn't have to see yourself, lying under all that concrete. There was a moment when I didn't know whether or not you were breathing. I thought you were dead."

"I know how that feels too, Min. Remember?"

Changmin did remember. Not how Jae had felt seeing him lying in the woods, of course. But he remembered quite clearly how his heart had stopped when the men he'd baited had stepped from the undergrowth and shot his three escorts without a single moment of hesitation.

The men who'd been with Changmin hadn't even had a chance to draw their weapons to defend themselves. And Changmin had inscribed another three names on the roll of honour and revenge he kept in his heart. All the deaths he was responsible for could have been avoided had he not decided to unmask the mole. But these last three had been the most needless.

"I remember," he said tonelessly, still as convinced as ever that leaving the base was the best solution for all concerned. His conviction did little for the ache in his heart and the lump in his throat. "Are you hungry?" he asked to distract himself. "There's ginger soup in the fridge."

Jae wasn't jonesing for a fight either. They shared soup and oat cakes, then took a shower together. Changmin fussed over Jaejoong's many scrapes and bruises and they carefully didn't mention the investigation, Ran Joon, the attack or the decision Changmin was steeling himself to make.

xxX oOo Xxx

Most of Changmin's headaches were fuelled by tension. They usually eased when he relaxed. Feeling Jae solid and warm against his side and hearing his deep, even breaths worked better than a handful of painkillers.

He was exhausted, but sleep eluded him as he'd known it would. Decisions used to come easy to him. He'd assess the situation, find the most suitable course of action and execute his plan without hesitation. Not this time, though, and the reason for that lay sleeping beside him.

Changmin had never had a lover, had never been with someone more than once, let alone for nine months in a row. He'd not anticipated that what they shared together would impact his ability to make decisions. But he now found that it did.

He didn't want to leave Jaejoong, didn't want to hole up somewhere all by himself, somewhere he could draw Hyeon's fire without anyone else getting hurt. It wasn't the same as Jae going on patrol, or Changmin heading to some out-of-the-way listening post to pick up chatter. This decision had the potential to end with Changmin's death… and Changmin found that he just wasn't ready yet to have it all end. It was… disconcerting.

Jaejoong stirring from deep sleep, drew him from his abstraction. The sniper was still on his side, facing away, but he buried backwards against Changmin, seeking contact. Changmin wrapped himself around Jae and buried his face in the man's neck.

"You don't need to stay awake and watch me, you know?" Jae mumbled sleepily.

"'M not," Changmin whispered back, hands roaming over Jaejoong's chest and abs as if he couldn't help himself. "Can't sleep."

"Wanna fuck me? That'll put you right out."

"Can't. Concussion. Yours."

"Bullshit."

Jae's body was coming alive under Changmin's hands, grew hard and demanding and enticing, until Changmin couldn't bite back a groan. Jaejoong could do that to him so easily, even after all those months.

"See? Your dick knows what you need better than that busy head of yours."

"Doc will kill me if I hurt you."

"I'll kill you first if you don't fuck me right now," Jae hissed. "Like this. And you can do the work, so my head can't complain."

And damn if demanding Jae didn't turn him on. As much as the thought that - should his plans fail - this would be their last time together. The realisation galvanised him into action. His hands moved with more purpose, caressed Jae as if he wanted to burn each contour and sensation into his deepest memory. Jae's gasps when too cold lube hit his skin, the soft sighs that shuddered along the column of his throat when Changmin raked his teeth down it, the deeper groan when Changmin pinched nippels and dragged his nails over Jae's abs. And the heartfelt moan when Changmin buried himself to the hilt in Jae's welcoming body.

He stopped thinking after that, his mind finally overwhelmed with sensation. He lost all sense of time and place, only knowing that the two of them moved as one, slowly and carefully, playing each other, pushing each other towards the edge, only to delay the fall again and again. Later, he wouldn't even recall his orgasm, just the long drawn-out journey towards the release. The slip and slide, the closeness, the warmth and - finally - the words Jaejoong may or may not have whispered into the stillness between them.

_I love you._

xxX oOo Xxx

"Min, why are you so stubborn? We all know Hyeon and his goons are after you. People will get hurt."

Changmin stared across the room at the man he'd called his lover for the last nine months. The early morning light wasn't kind. It didn't flatter or conceal. Bruises bloomed on Jaejoong's chest and arms. His face was covered in a myriad of tiny cuts and the gash over his cheekbone was an angry red. Jaejoong looked like walking proof of his statement, while Changmin stood at the end of the bed, pristine in his uniform, without a scratch on him.

"People already did," he said quietly. "I've got twenty-two men on my conscience. Don't think I'll ever forget about that. And now there's you. You could have died yesterday."

"I didn't."

"No, you didn't. It was fortunate you recognised the bomb for it what it was. It was fortunate you got somewhat out of the way before it exploded. But I cannot keep relying on fortune. None of you signed up for my mess. Only I did that. And I will be the only one who takes the risks from now on." He saw the gathering storm in Jaejoong's eyes, saw the man open his mouth to argue and raised his hand. "Don't, Jae. I am not my brother. I will not have others pay for my choices. And if I need to pull rank over this I will. Trust me on that."

His bag was packed and sat ready beside the door. And without a further word or another look at Jaejoong, Changmin turned, picked it up and walked out.


	6. Overlapping Circles

A giant fist crushed Jaejoong's heart as he watched the door close behind Changmin. He didn't call out. He didn't say a single thing that could dissuade Changmin from his course. That he'd seen this coming, didn't make it any easier to bear. Not when this mess could so easily end in Changmin's death.

Jaejoong didn't want to contemplate that. He rolled out of bed, wincing a little when multiple bruises reminded him of their existence. He drank black coffee while he shaved, then showered and dressed and ended up in the solo squad's common room before anyone else.

"You look like shit," Rin told him when he found him bent over his computer an hour later. "But you were right." Rin didn't look much better. He didn't move as gingerly as Jae did after being buried under tons of concrete, but the dark circles around his eyes could easily be mistaken for bruises. The man clearly hadn't slept all night.

"Of course I was right," Jaejoong grunted. "Changmin was so fucking obvious, I'm sure he wanted me to know. Did you get him?"

Rin stepped up to the large-scale map on the wall and traced a route from the base to the other side of town. "He drove this way. Then he gave me the slip like the pro he is. I don't think he wanted you to know what he was planning, Jae. He simply didn't realise how well you've come to know him. Even when he doesn't let his guard down."

"I was hoping he'd trust me," Jae said very quietly. He hadn't meant to mention that, but it helped ease the hurt just a little. As did Rin's comment.

"It's not a question of trust," Rin told him, as he'd done before, and this time Jaejoong actually heard him. "It's a question of survival. Yours. He's worked utterly alone for over three years, in a situation where he couldn't trust anyone. He's protecting you as best he knows."=

"He's an ass." Ran Joon's voice came from the doorway. He'd been given permission to leave his quarters and work in the common room, but he was being watched with many a suspicious glance and it didn't improve either his mood or his general disposition. "All that cloak and dagger stuff leads nowhere. Three years of work, and what does he have to show for it? Nothing."

"Hardly nothing," Rin replied before Jaejoong could muster a comeback. "He managed to get your stupid ass tossed in jail. I'd consider that a prime achievement."

"You would. You don't know you're born, Rin. Really, you don't. You two piss me off with all your fucking bellyaching. I bet you haven't even tried to call him yet. All you do is moan that he's made you and given you the slip. Of course he'd make you. He's a fucking spy and good at it!"

Ran stepped up beside Rin, grabbed a marker and highlighted three areas on the map. "Our parents' home. Min's old apartment. My old apartment. All areas he'll avoid since he's known there," Ran said confidently. Then he wrote six names on the whiteboard beside the map. "These are the men I worked with. Well, those six, Hyeon, whom I never met, and the three we took down in the woods. There's your sleeper cell. And if my stupid, oh-so-noble brother is running away to keep us safe while these six go after him… then I suggest we do what we do best and take them out first." He tossed the marker back onto the tray, spun and settled himself at the computer he'd been working on the previous day, leaving Rin and Jaejoong to stare at each other in astonished silence.

xxX oOo Xxx

Being given free reign to act and actually doing it were two very different things. For many years, Changmin had been used to a strict chain of command. Had been used to jumping when he was told to jump. Army intelligence officers had more freedom than regular troops, but they were still soldiers and even undercover missions had checks and balances. Changmin had never before acted completely without supervision.

Or maybe he had when he'd gone and collected evidence against General Hyeon. Maybe that was the reason the general had given him this job. And it was damned time he got on with it.

Not that he'd been sitting on his thumbs for the last nine months. The moment he'd realised that the general's intelligence staff didn't believe a word he said, when he realised that nothing would convince them than the actual results, he'd switched back into the work mode he'd employed over the previous three years.

Then, his target had been to unmask the mole and prove his guilt. Now he had a different agenda: find Hyeon, put names and faces to the rest of his cell and establish their objective.

It was a tall ask. But no worse than trying to prove - on the quiet - that the head of Army Intelligence was a North Korean undercover operative.

Changmin pulled into the underground parking area of a large, nondescript apartment building just south of the railway station. He'd rented the apartment two months earlier. It was basic, but had everything he needed to hole up and work without anyone looking over his shoulder. The freezer was stocked with microwave dinners and he had just been out to replenish his store of coffee, milk powder and green tea.

He had a long night ahead of him, but his first order of business, once he'd kicked off his shoes and secured the apartment against everything but a battering ram, was to check on Jaejoong. His previous handlers might condemn his actions as a weakness, but Changmin didn't see it that way. Knowing Jaejoong was safe calmed his mind. Knowing what the man was planning kept him a step ahead and Jaejoong out of the line of fire.

Just as he'd expected, his disappearance had prompted Ran Joon to cooperate with Jaejoong and Rin. The list of names that had appeared on the common room whiteboard had given him an excellent starting point. All six names tallied with names on his suspect list and two days earlier, Changmin had apprehended the man who had delivered the bomb to the base. The other five would follow as soon as he had found their hideouts.

He accessed one of the cameras he'd planted in the common room and found the place deserted. Ran Joon's list of names hadn't gotten any longer. He'd stopped at six, keeping the cell at 10 members. Changmin knew for a fact that the cell was larger than that. Maybe even twice the size. If Ran Joon really didn't know, then Hyeon was running in overlapping circles and that could get messy.

He scanned through the cameras on the base, found Jaejoong and Ran Joon sparring in the gym and frowned. The two weren't that friendly, so why would they train together? He watched for a while, but couldn't see any attempts at silent communication or anything else that hinted at trouble on the base. The only thing he saw was Jae and Ran kicking each other's butts until it had to hurt. And that made no sense at all.

He recalled his night-time project with difficulty and finally disconnected the video feed and focussed on his task.

Dressing was easy. The all-black, hooded outfit was much used and well broken in. Changmin slipped into the mindset he needed as he donned the familiar clothes. Calm was his. And focus. Revenge, fury and anger had no place in his thoughts.

Kitted to the gills he slipped from his apartment. The drive to the small, four-party apartment building at the back of an abandoned shopping mall took barely fifteen minutes. He parked at the far end of the empty lot, not concerned with being spotted by anyone. Many cars stopped here for a few minutes while their owners collected their takeaway orders. Nobody would take a second look at his car while he did something very different.

A quick scan through thermal imaging goggles showed that his target was home.

Changmin went up the fire escape, silent as a ghost. He let himself in through the bedroom window and rifled through the drawers there before he slipped through the half-open door into the living room, where his target sat oblivious, watching some inane reality show.

He knocked the man out, gagged him, trussed him expertly and then disappeared down the fire escape as silently as he'd come.

Once he was a safe distance away, he pulled out his phone.

"Another package for you, sir." Changmin reported as he'd done two days before. He added the man's name, address and apartment number and was about to hang up when the general stopped him.

"Shim. I have a name for you. Jason van Boeren." The general spelled it for him. "He's a South African who's been in the country for maybe two years. Works for a pharmaceutical subsidiary of Samsung. Data is in the usual place. Oh, and our information source hates his guts." The tint of humour in the general's voice made Changmin smile. He had insisted on tiny details. Had silently dreaded to be told of exactly how the interrogators were getting the information. Only to find that the general understood exactly what he needed.

"Thank you, sir."


End file.
